


Trick or Treat

by FlintMcC



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-21 12:28:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21074903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlintMcC/pseuds/FlintMcC
Summary: Just a little Halloween Fluff. ... Kind of a follow-up to "Christopher Has Two Daddies."





	Trick or Treat

Halloween was coming, and Christopher was getting excited. Over breakfast one morning a few weeks before the holiday, Eddie asked him, “So, pal, what do you want to be for Halloween?”

“The Flash,” Christopher said.

“The Flash?” Eddie said, putting down his cereal spoon, sounding concerned. The tone of his voice prompted Buck, seated across the table, to look up. He set down his coffee mug and watched closely.

“The Flash,” Christopher repeated. “He’s cool.”

“Uh, yeah, he is,” Eddie agreed, sounding uncertain. He thought a moment. “But what about Green Lantern? He’s cool, too,” he said hopefully.

“Yeah, he is, but I want to be the Flash.”

“Or, you could be somebody who’s not a superhero. You could be a pirate, or an astronaut, or a sailor, or even a firefighter, like Buck and your old man.” Eddie glanced across the table at Buck, who was still watching closely.

“No!” Christopher said decisively. “I want to be the Flash.”

Again Eddie looked across the table at Buck, but he got no help; Buck stayed silent, looking from Eddie to Christopher and back again. “Uh, well, okay, I guess. The Flash it is, then,” Eddie said. He didn’t sound thrilled by his son’s choice of costume.

“Good, Dad.”

When Christopher left the room to get ready for school, Buck got up and took his coffee mug and cereal bowl and set them in the kitchen sink. He turned to Eddie, who was just getting up from the table. “What was that all about?” he asked.

“What was what about?”

“About Christopher being the Flash for Halloween. It’s pretty clear you don’t want him to do it. Why not?”

Eddie put his own cereal bowl in the sink. He leaned on the edge of the counter and turned to Buck. “Think about it,” he said. “He’ll never run at all, and he wants to be the fastest man on Earth for Halloween.”

“So what?”

“‘So what?’ The kids are allowed to wear their costumes to school on Halloween. What if the other kids make fun of him for wanting to be the Flash?” Eddie’s voice showed his concern for his son.

“Eddie,” said Buck, “don’t make a big deal about it. Let him be what he wants to be. Halloween is all about fun, and pretending to be something you’re not. Nobody’s gonna make fun of him. Don’t forget, every kid in his class has some sort of challenge.” He concluded. “If you make a big deal out of it, you’ll make him self-conscious, and you’ll take all the fun out of it for him.”

Eddie sighed. “Maybe you’re right,” he said.

“I _am_ right,” Buck replied. He gave Eddie a kiss on the cheek, then headed off to get ready for work.

So, Christopher was going to be the Flash for Halloween. Eddie enlisted his _abuela,_ Isabel, to make the costume, and Christopher was so excited when he had his first fitting that he cheered and clapped. He couldn’t wait for the costume to be finished.

Meanwhile, the three of them got ready for the approaching holiday. They bought pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns. Buck, something of a kid himself when it came to Halloween, draped fake spider webs over a bush in the front yard and added some giant fuzzy spiders with large, googly eyes. Christopher sat on the front steps and watched as Eddie and Buck strung artificial colored leaves around the living room window.

“You know,” said Buck, as they strung the leaves, “this reminds me of Halloween in Pennsylvania. Lots of colored leaves, and lots of pumpkins.” He thought a bit. “And apple cider and doughnuts!” he added, smiling and laughing. He went quiet for a minute. Then, he went on, “You know, I sorta miss fall in Pennsylvania. We don’t even have fall in L.A.”

“Well,” said Eddie, as he tacked the end of the string of artificial leaves to the window frame, “maybe we can go there some year.” He glanced at his son. “Then Christopher can see what a real fall is like.” He and Buck exchanged smiles.

Over dinner that evening, Buck, somewhat hesitantly, asked, “Eddie, how about if I be the one to take Christopher out for Trick or Treat this year?”

“Oh? You want to?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I really want to.”

“Okay, you guys go out for Trick or Treat, and I’ll stay home and hand out treats to the ghosts and goblins.”

“Great!” Buck said, smiling broadly. He turned to Christopher. “How about that? You and me, buddy!” Eddie got the distinct impression that the two of them had been plotting this.

“Yay!” Christopher replied.

“Fist bump!” Buck exclaimed. He and Christopher gave each other a fist bump while Eddie shook his head and laughed.

But then Christopher turned to his father. “Dad,” he said, “what are you going to be for Halloween?”

“Oh,” Eddie said, “since I’m staying home to hand out the treats, I won’t do a costume this year.”

“D-a-a-a-d, you have to have a costume! It’s Halloween!”

“Yeah, Eddie,” Buck chimed in, “you have to have a costume.”

Eddie frowned at him. “You’re no help. And anyway, you’re not doing a costume, are you?”

“Sure I am!” Buck replied.

“What are you going to be?”

Buck and Christopher exchanged quick, conspiratorial smiles. Uh-oh, Eddie thought, they’re up to something.

“You’ll have to wait till Halloween to see it,” Buck said.

“Well, then, why do I have to have a costume?”

“C’mon, Dad!” Christopher begged.

“Yeah, c’mon, Eddie!” Buck added. “It’s Halloween!”

Eddie sighed. “All right, all right. I can’t fight both of you. I’ll do a costume.”

“Good!” said Buck.

“Yay!” said Christopher.

“So, what are you going to be?” Buck asked. He and Christopher were not going to let the subject drop.

“I don’t know,” Eddie said, looking at the table.

Buck turned to Christopher. “What do you think he should be? A vampire?”

“No.”

“A zombie?”

“No. Nothing creepy. Something cool.”

“Thanks for that,” Eddie put in.

“Like what?” Buck went on.

Christopher was silent for a moment. Then he piped up, “A cowboy! Cowboys are cool!”

“Or, how ‘bout a sheriff?” Buck suggested.

“Yeah! A sheriff! He can be Woody from _Toy Story!_”

“Oh, no!” Eddie said, looking alarmed. “I am _not_ going to be Woody from _Toy Story!_”

“Well, then, how about just a sheriff, but not Woody?” Buck looked at Christopher.

Christopher was quiet for a moment, thinking it over. “I guess so,” he finally said, though he sounded a little disappointed.

Buck smiled across the table at Eddie. “Well, pardner, looks like you’re going to be a sheriff for Halloween.”

“G-r-e-a-t.” Eddie bowed his head, wincing, covering his eyes with his hand.

With Buck and Christopher pestering him about his costume, Eddie set to work pulling it together. He already had a pair of cowboy boots that he rarely wore, and a cowboy hat that he never wore but kept because his mother had given it to him. He found an old leather vest at a thrift shop and a toy sheriff’s badge at a Halloween store. He hoped that would be enough to satisfy his two resident Halloween conspirators.

Finally October 31 arrived. _Abuela_ Isabel had Christopher’s costume finished just in time. He was pleased with it, and Eddie admitted that he looked pretty good in his superhero get-up.

Buck was proved correct, and Eddie was relieved: Nobody at Christopher’s school made fun of him because of his costume. No one cared that a boy who couldn’t run at all was pretending to be the fastest man on Earth. Some of his classmates were even envious. He stood out among the zombies and vampires and Disney princesses. He was so pleased with the costume that he insisted on keeping it on even after he came home from school.

That evening, after dinner, they carved the jack-o-lanterns. Buck set them out, three on the living room windowsill and two by the front steps. Christopher watched as he put a lighted candle inside each carved pumpkin.

Meanwhile, Eddie, already in his sheriff’s get-up, was in the kitchen getting the treats ready. He had bought a supply of miniature chocolate bars and peanut butter cups. He found an old plastic pumpkin that had once been used to collect Halloween goodies, and he decided he would use it to hold the treats. He was putting the last of the peanut butter cups into the plastic pumpkin when Buck sauntered into the room.

“Hey, there, sheriff,” Buck said, affecting a fake Western drawl, “lookin; mighty fine!” Thumbs hooked in the belt loops of his jeans, he strolled right up to Eddie. He opened the top two buttons on Eddie’s flannel shirt. “That’s better,” he said.

“Thanks.” Eddie gave him a wry look.

Buck put his arms around Eddie’s waist and pulled him close till he was rubbing his crotch against Eddie’s crotch. Eyebrows arched, he asked, “So, sheriff, think you might arrest me later tonight?”

Eddie grinned at him. “I think that might be arranged.” Buck’s blue eyes twinkled. He grinned wickedly. Then Eddie added, “Maybe I should have borrowed a pair of Athena’s handcuffs?”

“Ooooh!” Buck was pointing a finger right under Eddie’s nose when a little voice called out from another part of the house.

“B-u-u-u-ck!”

Buck pointed with both hands toward the doorway into the living room. “Uh, I guess I better go.”

Eddie nodded. “Sounds like you’re being summoned.” As he left the room, Eddie called to him, “I want to see that mysterious costume of yours before you leave the house.”

“You will, you will.”

It seemed to take some time for Buck to get into his costume, whatever it was. Eddie had poured himself a cup of coffee and was leaning against the kitchen counter when Buck and Christopher came into the room. Christopher was getting to be an armful, but Buck could still carry him. As soon as Eddie saw them, he started to laugh and almost spilled his coffee. Buck was also a superhero. Buck was dressed as Captain America.

“What?” Buck asked, perplexed. “Don’t I look okay?”

Still laughing, Eddie crossed the room and embraced both Buck and Christopher at the same time. “You look fine,” he said, managing to choke back his laughter, “but, really? Captain America?”

“What’s wrong with Captain America?” Buck sounded defensive about his chosen Halloween persona.

“Yeah, Captain America is cool!” Christopher put in.

“I’m sorry,” Eddie said, still choking back his laughter. ‘Nothing’s wrong with Captain America. In fact, you look great.” He looked Buck up and down, eyeing the way the costume clung to all parts of Buck’s anatomy. All parts. ... He gave him a quick kiss. “But sometimes I wonder, am I raising one little boy—or two?”

“Happy Halloween, Dad!” Christopher exclaimed.

“Happy Halloween, Christopher,” Eddie replied, and he hugged Christopher and Buck—his two boys—once again.


End file.
